BRADDOCK'S ROAD IN HISTORY
The narrow swath of a road cut through the darkling Alleghenies by
General Braddock has been worth all it cost in time and treasure.
Throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century it was one of the
main thoroughfares into the Ohio valley, and when, at the dawning of the
nineteenth, the United States built our first and greatest public
highway, the general alignment of Braddock's Road between Cumberland and
the last range of the Alleghenies--Laurel Hill--was the course pursued.
In certain localities this famed national boulevard, the Cumberland
Road, was built upon the very bed of Braddock's road, as Braddock's road
had been built partly upon the early Washington's Road which followed
the path of Indian, buffalo, and mound-building aborigines. Nowhere in
America can the evolution of road-building be studied to such advantage
as between Cumberland, Maryland and Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
For some years after Braddock's defeat his route to and fro between the
Monongahela and Potomac was used only by scouting parties of whites and
marauding Indians, and many were the swift encounters that took place
upon its overgrown narrow track. In 1758 General Forbes built a new road
westward from Carlisle, Pennsylvania rather than follow Braddock's
ill-starred track, for reasons described in another volume of the
present series.[52] Forbes frightened the French forever from the "Forks
of the Ohio" and erected Fort Pitt on the ruins of the old Fort
Duquesne. In 1763 Colonel Bouquet led a second army across the
Alleghenies, on Forbes's Road, relieved Fort Pitt and put an end to
Pontiac's Rebellion. By the time of Forbes's expedition Braddock's Road
was somewhat filled with undergrowth, and was not cut at all through the
last and most important eight miles of the course to Fort Duquesne.
Forbes had some plans of using this route, "if only as a blind," but
finally his whole force proceeded over a new road. However, certain
portions of Braddock's Road had been cleared early in the campaign when
Forbes thought it would be as well to have "two Strings to one Bow." It
was not in bad condition.[53]
This new northern route, through Lancaster, Carlisle, Bedford
(Reastown), and Ligonier, Pennsylvania, became as important, if not more
so, than Braddock's course from Cumberland to Braddock, Pennsylvania. As
the years passed Braddock's Road seems to have regained something of its
early prestige, and throughout the Revolutionary period it was perhaps
of equal consequence with any route toward the Ohio, especially because
of Virginia's interest in and jealousy of the territory about Pittsburg.
When, shortly after the close of the Revolution, the great flood of
immigration swept westward, the current was divided into three streams
near the Potomac; one went southward over the Virginian route through
Cumberland Gap to Kentucky; the other two burst over Forbes's and
Braddock's Roads. Some pictures of the latter are vividly presented in
early records of pilgrims who chose its rough path to gain the El Dorado
beyond the Appalachian mountain barriers.
William Brown, an emigrant to Kentucky from Hanover, Virginia, over
Braddock's Road in 1790 has left a valuable itinerary of his journey,
together with interesting notes, entitled _Observances and Occurrences_.
The itinerary is as follows:
MILES
To Hanover Court House, 16
To Edmund Taylor's, 16
To Parson Todd's, Louisa, 20
To Widow Nelson's, 20
To Brock's Bridge, Orange Co., 9
To Garnet's Mill, 5
To Bost. Ord'y, near Hind's House, 7
To Raccoon Ford, on Rapidan or Porters, 6
To Culpepper Co.-House, 10
To Pendleton's Ford, on Rappahannock, 10
To Douglass's Tavern, or Wickliffe's House, 13
To Chester's Gap, Blue Ridge, 8
To Lehu Town, 3
To Ford of Shenandore River, Frederick, 2
To Stevensburg, 10
To Brown's Mill, 2
To Winchester, 6
To Gasper Rinker's, 11
To Widow Lewis's, Hampshire, 11
To Crock's Tav., 9
To Reynold's, on the So. Branch Potowmack, 13
To Frankford Town, 8
To Haldeman's Mills, 4
To North Branch, Potomack, 3
To Gwyn's Tav., at the Fork of Braddock's
old road, Alleghany Co., Maryland, 3
To Clark's Store, 6
To Little Shades of Death, 12
To Tumblestone Tav., or the Little Meadows, 3
To Big Shades of Death, 2
To Mountain Tav., or White Oak Springs, 2
To Simpson's Tav., Fayette Co., Pennsylvania, 6
To Big Crossing of Yoh, 9
To Carrol's Tavern, 12
To Laurel Hill, 6
To Beason Town, 6
To Redstone, Old Fort, 12
To Washington Town, Washington Co., Penn., 23
To Wheeling, Old Fort, Ohio Co., Vir., 35
---
359[54]
Mr. Brown's notes of the journey over the mountains are:
"Set out from Hanover Friday 6th August 1790 arrived at Redstone Old
Fort about the 25th Inst. The road is pretty good until you get to the
Widow Nelson's, then it begins to be hilly and continues generally so
till you get to the Blue Ridge--pretty well watered. Racoon ford on
Rapidan is rather bad. The little mountains are frequently in view After
you pass Widow Nelson's. Pendleton's ford on Rappahanock is pretty good.
In going over Chester gap you ride about 5 miles among the mountains
before you get clear, a good many fine springs in the Mo. between the
Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mo. appears to be a fine country, altho the
land is pretty much broken. At Shenandore ford there is two branches of
the river to cross and it is bad fording. But there is a ferry a little
below the ford. There is a very cool stream of water about 14 miles
below Winchester. This is a well watered country but springs are rather
scarce on the road, at Winchester there are several fine springs. The
South branch of Potowmack has a good ford, also the North branch. Soon
after you pass Gwyns Tavern in Maryland you enter upon the Alleghany Mo.
and then you have a great deal of bad road, many ridges of Mo.--the
Winding Ridge--Savage, Negro, etc. and Laurel Hill which is the last,
but before you get to the Mount, there is some stony bad road between
the Widow Lewis' and the Mo. after you pass Clark's store in the Mo. you
get into a valley of very pretty oak land. In many places while you are
in the Mo. there is very good road between the ridges. Just before you
get to the Little Shades of Death there is a tract of the tallest pines
I ever saw. The Shades of Death are dreary looking valleys, growing up
with tall cypress and other trees and has a dark gloomy appearance.
Tumblestones, or the Little Meadows is a fine plantation with beautiful
meadow ground. Crossing of Yoh, is a pretty good ford. There is some
very bad road about here. It is said Gen Braddock was buried about 8
miles forward from this, near a little brook that crosses the road.
Laurel hill is the highest ridge of the Mo. When you get to the top of
it to look forward toward Redstone there is a beautiful prospect of the
country below the Mo. You see at one view a number of plantations and
Beason Town which is six miles off."[55]
With the growth of Cumberland and the improvement of navigation of the
upper Potomac, and especially the building of the canal beside it, the
importance of the Braddock route across the mountains was realized by
the state of Maryland and the legislature passed laws with reference to
straightening and improving it as early as 1795; acts of a similar
nature were also passed in 1798 and 1802.[56]
A pilgrim who passed westward with his family over Braddock's Road in
1796 leaves us some interesting details concerning the journey in a
letter written from Western Virginia after his arrival in the
"Monongahela Country" in the fall of that year. Arriving at Alexandria
by boat from Connecticut the party found that it was less expensive and
safer to begin land carriage there than to ascend the Potomac further.
They then pursued one of the routes of Braddock's army to Cumberland and
the Braddock Road from that point to Laurel Hill. The price paid for
hauling their goods from Alexandria to Morgantown (now West Virginia)
was thirty-two shillings and six-pence per hundred-weight "of women and
goods (freight)"--the men "all walked the whole of the way." Crossing
"the blue Mountain the Monongehaly & the Lorral Mountains we found the
roads to be verry bad."
It is difficult to say when Braddock's Road, as a route, ceased to be
used since portions of it have never been deserted. There are
interesting references to it in the records of Allegheny County,
Maryland, which bear the dates 1807[57] and 1813[58]. A little later it
is plain that "Jesse Tomlinson's" is described "on _National Road_"
rather than on "_Braddock's Road_," as in 1807.[59] From this it would
seem that by 1817 the term "Braddock's Road" was ignored, at least at
points where the Cumberland Road had been built upon the old-time track.
Elsewhere Braddock's route kept its ancient name and, perhaps, will
never exchange it for another.
[Illustration: BRADDOCK'S ROAD IN THE WOODS NEAR FARMINGTON,
PENNSYLVANIA]
The rough track of this first highway westward may be followed today
almost at any point in all its course between the Potomac and the
Monongahela, and the great caverns and gullies which mark so plainly its
tortuous course speak as no words can of the sufferings and dangers of
those who travelled it during the dark half century when it offered
one of the few passage-ways to the West. It was a clear, sweet October
day when I first came into Great Meadows to make there my home until
those historic hills and plains became thoroughly familiar to me. From
the Cumberland Road, as one looks southward from Mount Washington across
Great Meadows and the site of Fort Necessity, the hillside beyond is
well-timbered on the right and on the left; but between the forests lies
a large tract of cultivated ground across which runs, in a straight
line, the dark outline of a heavy unhealed wound. A hundred and fifty
years of rain and snow and frost have been unable to remove, even from a
sloping surface, this heavy finger mark. Many years of cultivation have
not destroyed it, and for many years yet the plow will jolt and swing
heavily when it crosses the track of Braddock's Road. I was astonished
to find that at many points in Fayette and neighboring counties the old
course of the road can be distinctly traced in fields which have for
half a century and more been under constant cultivation. If, at certain
points, cultivation and the elements have pounded the old track level
with the surrounding ground, a few steps in either direction will bring
the explorer instantly to plain evidence of its course--except where the
road-bed is, today, a travelled lane or road. On the open hillsides the
track takes often the appearance of a terrace, where, in the old days
the road tore a great hole along the slope, and formed a catchwater
which rendered it a veritable bog in many places. Now and then on level
ground the course is marked by a slight rounding hollow which remains
damp when the surrounding ground is wet, or is baked very hard when the
usual supply of water is exhausted. In some places this strange groove
may be seen extending as far as eye can reach, as though it were the
pathway of a gigantic serpent across the wold. At times the track,
passing the level, meets a slight ridge which, if it runs parallel to
its course, it mounts; if the rising ground is encountered at right
angles, the road ploughs a gulley straight through, in which the water
runs after each rain, preserving the depression once made by the road.
And as I journeyed to and fro in that valley visiting the classic spots
which appear in such tender grace in the glad sunshine of a mountain
autumn, I never passed a spot of open where this old roadway was to be
seen without a thrill; as James Lane Allen has so beautifully said of
Boone's old road through Cumberland Gap to Kentucky, so may the explorer
feelingly exclaim concerning Braddock's old track: "It is impossible to
come upon this road without pausing, or to write of it without a
tribute."
This is particularly true of Braddock's Road when you find it in the
forests; everything that savage mark tells in the open country is
reëchoed in mightier tones within the shadows of the woods. There the
wide strange track is like nothing of which you ever heard or read. It
looks nothing like a roadway. It is plainly not the track of a tornado,
though its width and straight course in certain places would suggest
this. Yet it is never the same in two places; here, it is a wide
straight aisle covered with rank weeds in the center of the low, wet
course; there, the forests impinge upon it where the ground is drier;
here, it appears like the abandoned bed of a brook, the large stones
removed from its track lying on each side as though strewn there by a
river's torrent; there, it swings quickly at right angles near the open
where the whole width is covered with velvet grass radiant in the
sunshine which can reach it here. In the forests more than elsewhere the
deep furrow of the roadway has remained wet, and for this reason trees
have not come up. At many points the road ran into marshy ground and
here a large number of roundabout courses speak of the desperate
struggles the old teamsters had on this early track a century ago. And
now and then as you pass along, scattered blocks and remnants of stone
chimneys mark the sites of ancient taverns and homesteads.
In the forests it is easy to conjure up the scene when this old track
was opened--for it was cut through a "wooden country," to use an
expression common among the pioneers. Here you can see the long line of
sorry wagons standing in the road when the army is encamped; and though
many of them seem unable to carry their loads one foot further--yet
there is ever the ringing chorus of the axes of six hundred choppers
sounding through the twilight of the hot May evening. It is almost
suffocating in the forests when the wind does not blow, and the army is
unused to the scorching American summer which has come early this year.
The wagon train is very long, and though the van may have halted on
level ground, the line behind stretches down and up the shadowy ravines.
The wagons are blocked in all conceivable positions on the hillsides.
The condition of the horses is pitiful beyond description. If some are
near to the brook or spring, others are far away. Some horses will never
find water tonight. To the right and left the sentinels are lost in the
surrounding gloom.
And then with those singing axes for the perpetual refrain, consider the
mighty epic poem to be woven out of the days that have succeeded
Braddock here. Though lost in the Alleghenies, this road and all its
busy days mirror perfectly the social advance of the western empire to
which it led. Its first mission was to bind, as with a strange, rough,
straggling cincture the East and the West. The young colonies were being
confined to the Atlantic Ocean by a chain of forts the French were
forging from Quebec to New Orleans. Had they not awakened to the task of
shattering that chain it is doubtful if the expansion of the colonies
could ever have meant what it has to the western world. Could Virginia
have borne a son in the western wilderness, Kentucky by name, if France
had held the Ohio Valley? Could North Carolina have given birth to a
Tennessee if France had made good her claim to the Mississippi? Could
New England and New York and Pennsylvania have produced the fruits the
nineteenth century saw blossom in the Old Northwest if France had
maintained her hold within that mighty empire? The rough track of
Braddock's Road, almost forgotten and almost obliterated, is one of the
best memorials of the earliest struggle of the Colonies for the freedom
which was indispensable to their progress. There was not an hour
throughout the Revolutionary struggle when the knowledge of the great
West that was to be theirs was not a powerful inspiration to the
bleeding colonies; aye, there was not a moment when the gallant
commander of those ragged armies forgot that there was a West into which
he could retreat at the darkest hour over Braddock's twelve-foot road.
That is the great significance of this first track through the "wooden
country"--an awakened consciousness.
The traveller at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, is within striking distance of
Braddock's Road at its most interesting points. A six-mile climb to the
summit of Laurel Hill brings one upon the old-time route which will be
found near Washington's Spring. A delightful drive along the summit of
the mountain northward brings one near the notorious "Dunbar's Camp"
where so many relics of the campaign have been found and of which many
may be seen in the museum of the nearby Pennsylvania Soldiers' Orphans'
Home. Here Dunbar destroyed the quantities of stores and ammunition with
which he could not advance, much less retreat. The visitor here should
find "Jumonville's Grove," about a quarter of a mile up the valley, and
should not miss the view from Dunbar's Knob.
Less than one mile eastward of Chalk Hill, beside a brook which bears
Braddock's name, beneath a cluster of solemn pines, lies the dust of the
sacrificed Braddock. If there is any question as to whether his body was
interred at this spot, there is no question but that all the good he
ever did is buried here. Deserted by those who should have helped him
most, fed with promises that were never kept, defeated because he could
not find the breath to cry "retreat" until a French bullet drove it to
his throat--he is remembered by his private vices which the whole world
would quickly have forgotten had he won his last fight. He was typical
of his time--not worse.
In studying Braddock's letters, preserved in the Public Records Office,
London, it has been of interest to note that he never blamed an
inferior--as he boasted in the anecdote previously related. His most
bitter letter has been reproduced, and a study of it will make each line
of more interest. His criticism of the Colonial troops was sharp, but
his praise of them when they had been tried in fire was unbounded. He
does not directly criticise St. Clair--though his successful rival for
honors on the Ohio, Forbes, accused St. Clair in 1758 not only of
ignorance but of actual treachery. "This Behavior in the people" is
Braddock's charge, and no one will say the accusation was unjust.
With something more than ordinary good judgment Braddock singled out
good friends. What men in America, at the time, were more influential in
their spheres than Franklin, Washington, and Morris? These were almost
the only men he, finally, had any confidence in or respect for.
Washington knew Braddock as well as any man, and who but Washington, in
the happier days of 1784, searched for his grave by Braddock's Run in
vain, desirous of erecting a monument over it?
Mr. King, editor of the Pittsburg _Commercial-Gazette_, in 1872 took an
interest in Braddock's Grave, planted the pines over it and enclosed
them. A slip from a willow tree that grew beside Napoleon's grave at St.
Helena was planted here but did not grow. There is little doubt that
Braddock's dust lies here. He was buried in the roadway near this brook,
and at this point, early in the last century, workmen repairing the road
discovered the remains of an officer. The remains were reinterred here
on the high ground beside the Cumberland Road, on the opposite bank of
Braddock's Run. They were undoubtedly Braddock's.
As you look westward along the roadway toward the grave, the significant
gorge on the right will attract your attention. It is the old pathway of
Braddock's Road, the only monument or significant token in the world of
the man from whom it was named. Buried once in it--near the cluster of
gnarled apple-trees in the center of the open meadow beyond--he is now
buried, and finally no doubt, beside it. But its hundreds of great
gorges and vacant swampy isles in the forests will last long after any
monument that can be raised to his memory.
Braddock's Road broke the league the French had made with the
Alleghenies; it showed that British grit could do as much in the
interior of America as in India or Africa or Egypt; it was the first
important material structure in this New West, so soon to be filled with
the sons of those who had hewn it.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Entick, _History of the Late War_, vol. i., p. 110.
[2] Entick, _History of the Late War_, vol. i., p. 124.
[3] _Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy_, vol. iii., p. 55.
[4] _Letters of Walpole_, (edited by Cunningham, London 1877), vol. ii.,
p. 461.
[5] Entick _History of the Late War_, vol. i., p. 142.
[6] _History of the Late War_, vol. i., p. 142.
[7] _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. 75, p. 389 (1755); also _A Review of
the Military Operations in North America_, London, 1757, p. 35.
[8] _A letter relating to the Ohio Defeat_, p. 14.
[9] Walpole's _Memoirs of George II_, vol. ii., p. 29.
[10] Walpole's _Memoirs of George II_, vol. ii., p. 29; also London
_Evening Post_, September 9-11, 1755.
[11] Walpole's _Memoirs of George II_, vol. i., p. 397; Sargent's
_History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 153, note.
[12] Minutes taken "At a Council at the Camp at Alexandria in Virginia,
April 14, 1755." Public Records Office, London: _America and West
Indies_, No. 82.
[13] Braddock's MS. Letters, Public Records Office, London: _America and
West Indies_, No. 82.
[14] For these early routes through Pennsylvania, partially opened in
1755, see _Historic Highways of America_, vol. v., chap. I.
[15] _Maryland Archives_; Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, vol. i.,
pp. 77 and 97.
[16] Preserved at the Congressional Library, Washington.
[17] Eight miles from Alexandria. See Note 26.
[18] Arguments pro and con have been interestingly summed up by Dr.
Marcus Benjamin of the U. S. National Museum, in a paper read before the
Society of Colonial Dames in the District of Columbia April 12, 1899,
and by Hugh T. Taggart in the _Washington Star_, May 16, 1896. For a
description of routes converging on Braddock's Road at Fort Cumberland
see Gen. Wm. P. Craighill's article in the _West Virginia Historical
Magazine_, vol. ii, no. 3 (July, 1902), p. 31. Cf. pp. 179-181.
[19] London, Groombridge & Sons, 1854. Mr. Morris, in footnotes, gave
what he considered any important variations of the original manuscript
from the expanded version he was editing; Mr. Sargent reproduced these
notes, without having seen the original.
[20] _History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 359, note.
[21] _History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 359, note.
[22] Mr. Gordon evidently used the word "self" in his entry of June 3 to
throw any too curious reader off the track.
[23] _History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 387.
[24] _History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 365.
[25] In the Gordon Journal, under the date of June 10, there are two
entries. One seems to have been Gordon's and reads: "The Director of the
Hospital came to see me in Camp, and found me so ill.... I went into the
Hospital, & the Army marched with the Train &c., and as I was in hopes
of being able to follow them in a few days, I sent all my baggage with
the Army." Without doubt this was Gordon's entry, as no sailor could
have had sufficient baggage to warrant such a reference as this, while
an engineer's "kit" was an important item. Then follow two entries (June
24 and 26) evidently recorded by one who remained at Fort Cumberland,
and a second entry under the date of June 10, which is practically the
first sentence of the entry under the same date in the original
manuscript, and which has the appearance of being the genuine record
made by the sailor detained at Fort Cumberland. The confusion of these
entries in the Gordon Journal makes it very evident that one author did
not compose them. The two entries for June 10 are typical of "Mr
Engineer Gordon" and an unknown sailor.
[26] This form of the name of the modern Rock Creek is significant and
is not given in the expanded form of this journal. "Rock's Creek"
suggests that the great bowlder known as "Braddock's Rock" was a
landmark in 1755 and had given the name to the stream which entered the
Potomac near it.
[27] The use of full names in this journal is strong evidence that it is
the original.
[28] The Gordon Journal assiduously reverses every such particular as
this; it reads here: "there are about 200 houses and 2 churches, one
English, one Dutch."
[29] Though in almost every instance the Gordon Journal gives a more
wordy account of each day's happenings, it _never gives a record for a
day that is omitted by this journal_, as April 22, 23, and 28; at times,
however, a day is omitted in that journal that is accounted for in this;
see entries for May 9 and May 25--neither of which did Mr. Morris give
in his footnotes, though the latter was of utmost significance.
[30] The words "from the French" are omitted in the Gordon Journal,
which makes the entry utterly devoid of any meaning--unless that Cresap
had been ordered to retire by the Ohio Company! Cresap in that document
is called "a vile Rascal"; cf. Pennsylvania _Colonial Records_, vol.
vi., p. 400. For eulogy of Cresap see _Ohio State Archæological and
Historical Publications_, vol. xi.
[31] This is given for the 13th in the Gordon Journal.
[32] The Gordon Journal: "Mr Spendlow and self surveyed 22 casks of
beef, and condemned it, which we reported to the General."
[33] Two chaplains accompanied the two Regiments Philip Hughes was
chaplain of the 44th and Lieut. John Hamilton of the 48th. The latter
was wounded in the defeat.
[34] The entry of Gordon Journal reads: "Col. Burton, Capt. Orme, Mr.
Spendlowe and self...."
[35] The Gordon Journal: "This morning an Engineer and 100 men...."
[36] The only hint given in the Gordon Journal as to the author of the
original document is under this date. The Gordon Journal reads, "Mr.
Spendlowe and self with 20 of our men went to the place where the new
road comes into the old one...." "Self" here seems to refer to
"Midshipman"; but Mr. Gordon often refers to himself as an engineer and
never once inserts his own name, though he was a most important
official. Gordon probably accompanied or followed Spendlowe.
[37] Entries written by one while detained at Fort Cumberland. If
written by Gordon he hastened immediately to the front, for he was with
Braddock's advance on July 9.
[38] The Gordon Journal: "One of our Engineers, who was in front of the
Carpenters marking the road, saw the Enemy first." Who but Gordon would
have omitted his name under these circumstances?
[39] This last paragraph is evidently an additional memorandum of
British loss. The contents of the chest was undoubtedly £10,000.
[40] _British Newspaper Accounts of Braddock's Defeat_, p. 10.
Pennsylvania _Colonial Records_, vol. vi., p. 482.
[41] This view of Braddock's defeat is given in the late John Fiske's
recent volume, _New France and New England_.
[42] London _Public Advertiser_, November 3, 1755.
[43] London _Public Advertiser_, November 3, 1755.
[44] Cf. _British Newspaper Accounts of Braddock's Defeat_, p. 9.
Pennsylvania _Colonial Records_, vol. vi., p. 482. London _Public
Advertiser_, November 3, 1755.
[45] Cf. _British Newspaper Accounts of Braddock's Defeat_, p. 9; London
_Public Advertiser_, November 3, 1755.
[46] This chapter is from Neville B. Craig's _The Olden Time_, vol. ii.,
pp. 465-468, 539-544.
[47] See _Historic Highways of America_, vol. v.
[48] Preserved in the library of Harvard University.
[49] "Many misstatements are prevalent in the country adjacent to the
line of march, especially east of Cumberland, the traditionary name of
Braddock's route being often applied to routes we know he did not
pursue. It is probable the ground of the application consists in their
having been used by the Quarter Master's men in bringing on those
Pennsylvania wagons and pack horses procured by Dr. Franklin, with so
much trouble and at so great expense of truth. Sir John Sinclair wore a
Hussar's cap, and Franklin made use of the circumstance to terrify the
German settlers with the belief that he was a Hussar who would
administer to them the tyrannical treatment they had experienced in
their own country if they did not comply with his wishes. It is singular
that a small brook and an obscure country road in Berkley County,
Virginia, bear the name of Sir John's Run, and Sir John's Road, supposed
to be taken from the name of this officer.
[50] "The original name of Cumberland was Cucucbetuc, and from its
favorable position on the Potomac, was most probably the site of a
Shawnee village, like Old Town; moreover, it was marked by an Indian
name, a rare occurrence in this vicinity, if any judgment may be drawn
from the few that have been preserved.
[51] "This interesting locality lies at the west foot of the Meadow
Mountain, which is one of the most important of the Alleghany Ridges, in
Pennsylvania especially, where it constitutes the dividing ridge between
the eastern and western waters. A rude entrenchment, about half a mile
north of the Inn on the National Road, kept by Mr. Huddleson, marks the
site of this fort. This is most probably the field of a skirmish spoken
of in frontier history, between a Mr. Parris, with a scouting party from
Fort Cumberland, and the Sieur Donville, commanding some French and
Indians, in which the French officer was slain. The tradition is
distinctly preserved in the vicinity, with a misapprehension of
Washington's participation in it, arising probably from the partial
resemblance between the names of Donville and Jumonville. From the
positiveness of the information, in regard to the battle ground,
conflicting with what we know of Jumonville's death, it seems probable
enough that this was the scene of this Indian skirmish; and as such, it
possesses a classic interest, valuable in proportion to the scarcity of
such places.
[52] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. v., ch. 4.
[53] _Bouquet Papers, MSS._ Preserved in British Museum: Forbes to Pitt,
July 10; Forbes to Bouquet, August 2; Bouquet au Forbes, July 26, 1758.
[54] Speed's _The Wilderness Road_, pp. 56-57.
[55] Speed's _The Wilderness Road_, p. 60.
[56] Lowdermilk's _History of Cumberland_, p. 275.
[57] _Land Records of Allegheny County, Md._ Liber E, fol. 191.
[58] _Id._, Liber G. fol. 251.
[59] _Id._, Liber I and J, fol. 105.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
2. Obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected except
for narratives and letters included in this text.
3. Footnotes have been moved to the end of the main text body.
4. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest
paragraph break.
5. Certain words use an oe ligature in the original.
6. Carat character (^) followed by a single letter or a set of letters
in curly brackets is indicative of subscript in the original book.